Dr Robert Lustig has created a bit of a stir with claims that juices are bad for you. Although his book Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar blames the high levels of refined sugar in processed food and soft drinks for the soaring rates of obesity, the media are making meal of the fact that he stated that liquid fructose (the main natural sugar in juice) is dangerous for our health, irrespective of the source.
People who regularly juice for their health are beginning to question the wisdom of juicing and others are asking is juicing good for you?
On the one hand Dr Lustig says that the natural sugars in juices are overloading our livers and leading to health issues such as heart problems, diabetes and obesity yet on the other Dr Cabot, the liver doctor, says that juices can help to repair the liver, stimulate the liver detox pathways and improve the fat burning capabilities of the liver.
Dr Mercola says “I am firmly convinced that juicing is the final key to giving you a radiant, energetic life, and truly optimal health”
So who is right and who is wrong?
Juices as medicine
Looking back through history juices were used as medicines in many ancient cultures and Koreans reputedly used green juice in ceremonial practices for more than two thousand years.
In 1928 Dr Max Gerson started curing patients with a regime that included fresh vegetable and fruit juices. The Gerson Therapy is still used today by many people as an alternative cure for cancer and other degenerative diseases and includes drinking 13 juices a day.
Dr Norman Walker studied living foods for over 70 years popularized juicing in 1936 with the publication of his book Raw Vegetable juices.
Juicing can improve your health
It’s a fact that many people have juiced themselves back to health. I, for one, recovered from Chronic Fatigue with an intensive jucing program similar to the Gerson Therapy.
Dr Koyfman ND, is but one naturopathic doctor I know of that has success with his obese patients by putting them on juice fasts. They do not develop liver problems. In fact juicing improves their liver function as it helps to detox their livers.
According to Liz Earl a well known health expert “Juicing is a wonderful way to improve energy levels, restore vitality and give your body a much needed boost”.
Raw fooders drink freshly made juices everyday but you don’t have to go on a raw food diet to get the benefits of juicing.
Read on to didcover what Karen Knowler, a raw food coach has to say about it.
The Raw Fooder’s Guide to Juicing: What and Why
A juicer is one of the most prominent items in any raw kitchen, and is used every day or almost every day by most successful raw fooders. So what does it mean to juice every day and why is it so important?
Juicing can add a whole new dimension to your diet, providing a huge amount of nutrition in an easily assimilable, concentrated form that is refreshing and delicious. It’s well worth spending some time looking into the whys, hows and whats of making fresh fruit and vegetable juices because you’ll likely want to make juicing an everyday activity!
So, What is Juicing Exactly?
Juicing is the method used to extract the liquid portion of a fruit, vegetable, herb or grass from its original form. As these plants typically consist of at least 70% water in their whole state, you can extract a lot of juice from them. Fresh fruits are often even higher in water – often more than 85%.
Juicing works by crushing, finely grating or squeezing the juice from the original food and then filtering through a fine sieve or something similar – on electric juicers this sieve is typically called a screen. The fibrous part of the plant (the pulp) is expelled elsewhere, leaving pure clean juice as a by-product in a separate jug, fresh and “live” and ready to drink.
Why Juice?
Aside from the enormous nutritional benefits mentioned above, experimenting with juicing will open you up to an incredible variety of taste sensations, varying from simple single fresh fruit juices through to tasty vegetable combinations like carrot and beetroot, highly alkalising green juices and more elaborate fruit cocktails. Juices could be invaluable as a way of replacing other, less healthy drinks that you might have been used to, especially if you don’t like to drink water all the time.
Quite simply, juices taste amazing, can look strikingly beautiful (depending on what you put in them, the various colours you can create can look stunning) and when you’ve drunk one you feel as if you’ve been washed clean inside.
If you want to feel squeaky clean for a day and lose a little weight, a day of juicing will do wonders for you. Your energy levels will increase and both your mind and your body will thank you. And needless to say, kids of all ages (including Grandad!) love juice. In fact, everybody loves juice!
Best Ways to Get Juicing
Obviously, the best way to get into juicing is to buy yourself a good juicer and start using it!
You can create some incredible fruit or vegetable cocktails using a combination of pure fresh juices, I feel that the simplest juices are the best. Unless you have a candida problem, start with fruits as their sweetness makes them more palatable than vegetable juices when you are starting out. You can move on to vegetable juices later when your palate is used to the stronger flavours. Single fruits like apples, oranges and watermelon are delicious when juiced on their own.
Once you’ve got started there’s no end to the delicious and highly nutritionally-dense creations you can make using your juicer.
Copyright © 2013 Karen Knowler
“Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes “Successfully Raw” – a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com“
So what do you think? Is juicing good for you or not?
It is known that our diets play a huge part in our health. Modern food is becomming less and less healthy as more convenience food is produced. Commercial farming is intensive and the use of chemicals and pesticides robs the soil of nutrients.
So many people do not have a healthy lifestyle of wholesome eating and exercise that it is not surprising that they suffer from long list of health problems.
I think it’s likely that any problems thought to be associated with juicing do not come from freshly made juices but store bought juices combined with an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.
Don’t think that juices alone will make up for an unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Jucing should form part of a program of healthy diet and exercise.
If you have had success with fresh juices please leave a comment and share your story with my readers.
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Seriously…how can juicing be bad for you? Only if you juiced fast food maybe. There always has to be someone that is controversial to something just to get noticed. Juice on I say!
You are spot on Yolan. Where would we be without controversy? I say juice on too!
Sandy
interesting topic, i just bought the book from your link, will let you know what i think after i finish reading it…thanks
Thanks May, do let me know what you think.
Good health
Sandy
It is really a perfect article regarding juicing for the diet. Juices should be include in our daily diet but one thing should be noted that it should be fresh and natural.This will give way to a more energetic and healthy life.